The American Dream lives on, in the shape of Chevrolet's latest V8 muscle car. Now all you need is a wider road...

A car collection isn’t complete
without some American muscle; that’s my opinion, anyway.

I’ve got a 1967
Ford Mustang in mine.

It took some restoration, which I wrote about in
this column, but I love it.

Normally I'd be picking faults in a car from the States, but I found the Chevrolet Camaro pretty flawless to drive

The Mustang’s great sparring partner back in
the day was the Chevrolet Camaro, launched by General Motors in 1966 as
a ‘Mustang killer’.

When I heard one was heading my way this week, I
must say I got slightly excited.

America’s been on my mind recently:
I’ve been thinking of doing a gastro tour of California with some foodie
friends.

And one of the guests I had on the show before the summer
break was a Yank – one of the biggest chefs in the world, actually.

He
sincerely wanted to know why I was deep-frying pork skins in salt and
vinegar powder.

They don’t have pork scratchings in America, you see. I
said that it’s just as well, mate.

It has a six-speed manual gearbox, traction control, retuned dampers for a firmer ride and stabiliser bars for flatter cornering

Can you imagine if pork scratchings
took off Stateside?

You’d be able to buy a two-kilo bucket of them at
the cinema with maple syrup and chocolate chips. If something’s worth
having in America, it’s worth having far too much of.

And the same goes for their cars.
Those efficient little Renault Clios and Vauxhall Corsas we drive here?
They don’t go near them. Well, maybe in Beverly Hills, where people
drink wheatgrass and chew alfalfa shoots. But they’re a minority. Big
has always been best there.

Before my ’67 Mustang I had a ’59
Chevrolet Corvette. Neither was exactly pretty; it’s something to do
with the proportions.

Standing in front, looking at the grille and the
huge bonnet, muscle cars look mean, moody and magnificent.

From the
side, from the back and from the inside, they’re just big rectangles.
Would this new offering from Chevrolet buck the trend?

Top speed is 155, anything over 70 is illegal but the dial goes up to 300. I like that

No. My first view of the new Camaro
was from the rear as it reversed onto my drive. It had a backside like a
fat lass in leggings.

From the front, it was everything I could have
wanted.

The headlights scowl at you from the narrow grille like a
quarterback from his helmet. It rides low, with a wide track, a low roof
and a steeply raked windscreen.

The all-important power bulge in the
bonnet tapers down to a narrow vent. It’s a muscle car all right.

I was expecting it to drive like other
muscle cars, with huge torque, huge power and thundering noise, but the
cornering skills of a hippo on a tricycle.

Because most U.S. roads are
straight, Americans are good at making the rear wheels thrust forward
but not so good at making them dig into bends.

For that you need
complicated things like limited-slip differentials and independent rear
suspension.

This was built with European roads in
mind, so has both. It also has a six-speed manual gearbox, traction
control, retuned dampers for a firmer ride and stabiliser bars for
flatter cornering.

With the low roof and high waistline you can feel a bit boxed in, and the boot's not as big as I'd expected, but there's good elbow room

They tested it out on the Nürburgring in Germany –
the hilly circuit Jackie Stewart called the ‘Green Hell’. Could it
handle the B-roads of Hampshire?

Yes, but only once I’d found a road
wide enough.

Unlike every other American car I’ve tried (including the
four preceding generations of Camaro, and the current Mustang), this has
the balance, grip and control of a European sports car. But it’s twice
the width.

Go round a blind corner on a country lane and you’ve got to
make a choice between branches whipping the left wing and potentially
smashing a mirror off, or edging the right wheels over the white line
and risking a collision.

And I don’t want one of those; not on my summer
break.

What you need for the Camaro is a nice
bit of straight, quiet road. It does 0-60mph in just over five seconds,
and the noise is amazing as the 6.2-litre V8 climbs from a low rumble
to a high shout.

It’s got Launch Control, but I’m not sure how many
tyre-smoking starts you could do before the low-profile P-Zeros gave
out.

Smoking’s never been my thing, but in this I could get hooked. It
put a thrill up my spine every time I blipped the throttle.

Normally I’d be picking faults in a car from the States, but I found this pretty flawless to drive.

What other £35,000 car produces 426hp?

Amazingly, in America they start at the equivalent of £15,000. The last Toyota Yaris I drove cost more than that.

Of course, cheapness has its drawbacks.

The interior is mostly dull plastic with a few touches of silver trim and a drinks holder that could fit a horse bucket.

With the low roof and high waistline you can feel a bit boxed in, and the boot’s not as big as I’d expected, but there’s good elbow room and it’s well equipped with heated seats, parking camera, cruise control and head-up display.

Quality-wise, you’d never mistake it for an Audi or Beemer. But at night, with all the lights glowing in the dark, it doesn’t matter at all.

Listening to the V8 you can’t help imagining you’re on the desert road to Vegas, on the run from the law, watching the speedo creep up towards 300mph. (Top speed is 155, anything over 70 is illegal but the dial goes up to 300. I like that.)

So would I buy a Camaro?

Actually I might. It’s a survivor. When they stopped making the ugly fourth-generation Camaro in 2002, I thought it was gone for good.

I definitely didn’t think it would come back faster, sleeker and able to go round corners.

I shouldn’t like American muscle cars; compared with today’s motors they’re carbon-spewing dinosaurs.

But as any eight-year-old boy will tell you, dinosaurs are flipping cool.

After the ugly fourth-generation Camaro in 2002, I definitely didn't think it would come back faster, sleeker and able to go round corners

TECH SPEC

£35,025 chevrolet.co.uk

Engine 6.2-litre V8

Power 426hp

0-60mph in 5.2 seconds

Top speed 155mph

Fuel consumption 14.1mpg

CO2 emissions 329g/km (£475/year tax band)

Transmission Six speed manual

DRIVE TALKING

What's hot on the road this week

MONSTER TRUCKS

A new generation Mercedes G-Class goes into production next month. Priced from a whopping £82,945 for the G 350 BlueTEC, it now has COMAND Online, Parktronic, all-heated leather seats and a Harman Kardon surround-sound system as standard. It still has a 3.0-litre V6, permanent all-wheel drive, locking differential, 4ETS traction control and low-range gears for off-roading. For the first time, there’s a 544hp AMG model – for £123,115.

SILVER DREAM RACER

The ‘silver arrows’ of Mercedes and Auto Union (later Audi) dominated motor racing in the Thirties. After the war, Auto Unions were carted off to the USSR. This one, a 485hp twin-supercharged Type D, was in parts all across Russia until an American collector put it back together. Now Audi has bought it back – and will be showing it at the Goodwood Revival next month.

FASTER ASTRA

The 192hp twin turbo 2.0-litre diesel engine from the high performance Vauxhall Astra GTC will now be available on the other Astra bodyshapes: the five-door hatch and the Sports Tourer (estate). Both new models will have a top speed above 135mph and should still return 55mpg.